The Eastern Shores (CCW)
To the east of the old world, Stranger civilizations dominate, so these shore-dwelling humans are often judged by their relationships to their non-human neighbors—in that, having any relationship at all makes them rather despicable. With the exception of Makala, which set up its trading empire here, the rest of the civilized world does not think highly of the Easterners. The Old World finds them crass and untrustworthy, the Vadraedic Empires see them as weak and emasculated, and even the marginal North despises their impurity and amorality. Scrappers, Slaves, and Sellswords, they are called, and in many ways they live up to their reputation. Their culture and behavior is often unrecognizable, alien even. They don’t build cities for themselves or organize into nations. They often don’t even have their own languages, preferring to speak the tongues of the nearest dominant powers. And yet they are extremely human in their own way: aggressive traders, ingenious adapters, and no stranger to opportunistic war and impulsive rebellion. Kirana See also: Kirana -the Kira The minor continent of Kirana is occupied mostly by the capricious Kira race, but a sizable population of humans live along the western coast. It is a rich land with countless rivers laced over damp, deep purple soil, and abundant vegetation. The Kira have, in their long history, tamed their jungles into elaborate, ever-giving gardens. But the humans have no access to any of it. The Kiranese are instead scavengers and scrappers, skimming off the overflow and refuse of another people and selling it to the human world. In desperate times they work for Kira in exchange for goods. In dire times they thieve and pillage from them. This is not to say that the humans of Kirana make nothing of their own. They may be beggars, but they are not poor—from their findings they weave fantastically colorful garments and weld armor from their abundance of gold and jewels. All of which is baffling to outsiders, who see a people dressed as kings, but without a palace or even a house in sight. Instead the Kiranese erect temporary shelters to hunt, gather, and grow subsistence foods on the little soil left to them --when it is not all flooded or blown away by monsoons. Some Kiranese do settle in trading towns, founded mostly by the Makalans, though these sites rarely last, swept away by hostile Kira, Kiranese, or Kiranese weather. In a land like this, where seasons have no meaning, and the sun is the only sure thing in a day, it is either ironic or highly appropriate that the main Kiranese pastime is the construction of time pieces: bouquets of flowers which open up at different times of day, twisting glass contraptions dripping with hot wax, platters with dollops of fragrant powders, releasing different scents as they cook in the sunlight and cool with the night breeze. Notes: The Kiranese are organized into extended family units, which ban together in different permutations depending on environmental and political circumstances. In the southern regions, they are known to employ Judges as arbitrators and generals, much as the Wyndolese do. Wyndol See also: Wyndol -the Wynder The most maligned of the Eastern Realms by far, Wyndol is home to humanity’s oldest rival, the Wynder, and the humans that live and collaborate with these Strangers are widely considered the most treacherous and pitiful of creatures. This is unfair, of course. There are certainly some Wyndolese that consider themselves Acolytes to the Wynds, building and working for them, learning their secret arts, worshiping their gods in the inner reaches of this minor continent, and in the northern parts. But they are a minority. The majority of the Wyndolese are hardened and harrowed, more like hostages to the Wynder than willing slaves. These humans do not live alongside their captors, but roam the cold and rocky shorelands, doing their bidding. Why exactly they stay and suffer under these circumstances isn’t entirely clear. Are they fed some addictive substance at birth? Are their love ones imprisoned? Are they indoctrinated? Some have emigrated*, but most have remained on Wyndol for more than two thousand years, trampling the dirt astride their sleek, spotted steeds and throwing up their tents and pavilions around great bonfires. They hunt Mammoths and Wyverns, dragging the carcasses inland on giant sleds. More rarely, they cut blocks of stone and carry these back as well. Mostly, however, they roam the wide open south, fighting anything that draws near. What we know of them, we mostly know through the Makalans, the only outsiders they will deal with--and that relationship is strictly business. From what we can gather, they have no permanent or hereditary rulers, instead organizing themselves around complex systems of honor and glory that lift leaders up on their feats and reputation. These are the Judges; sometimes generals, sometimes wise-women or wise-men, sought out to settle disputes and command armies. It was under the leadership of some particularly legendary Judges that the Wyndolese expelled invasion after invasion during the latter Wars against the Gods--thereby staving off human expansion into the world beyond their own, and protecting the gods of the Strangers. Herein lies their original sin, and the truest reason for the ire of their fellow man. Note: *Notably the group that became known as the Indrisaender on Midland and later the Dahaender in Celtheste. These cultures are an indirect source on their Wyndolese ancestors. Wyndolese refers to the human inhabitants of Wyndol, while anything that is Wyndish refers to the Wynder race or, confusingly, the language they share with the Wyndolese. Sayrowyn See article: Sayrowyn -the Many for a full understanding of this region. Though a huge population of humans resides on the Sayrownese subcontinent, they may as well be Strangers to their westerly brethren. The whole region is incomprehensible to most of humanity; a cosmopolitan mixing bowl of races and cultures, all toppling over and knocking into each other in wet, stinking cities. Plug your nose, however, and enter one of the most fascinating, pluralistic corners of earth. Humans are but one piece of this alien world, playing their role as sailors and merchants, yes, but countless other ones depending on the city and their status within it. In unshakable Datra, they are scribes, seers, chefs, and bakers; in Golmori, the noble republic, the great city in a circle, humans not only sail and trade, but build ships as well. In tall, gleaming Kiamt and the island city of Buneso, they can be whatever they well please, but many distinguish themselves as artists and architects. Outside these cornerstones of Sayrownese society, humans live in comparatively small Makalan trade settlements, or live as Nayadan monks in the more mountainous interiors. Most infamously, they are mercenaries, and notoriously brutal ones at that, detested for the wanton misery they leave in their wake. Beyond See also: * The Kira * The Wynder * Strangers of Sayrowyn